NEWS ROUNDUP

Drought reducing cattle grazing in southwestern North Dakota Drought is reducing the number of cattle grazing on the Little Missouri National Grasslands in western North Dakota, and the amount of time they can munch the grass. The Medora Grazing Association expects a 20 percent reduction in cattle numbers this year, and a later turnout of cattle onto rangeland. Range managers say more cuts are possible if no rain falls in April or May. The goal is to give the range room to recover. The region has experienced dry years since the late 1990s, and the 460 ranchers who lease grassland managed by the U.S. Forest Service will have to reduce their overall cattle count for the second year in a row....
Protest yields more arrests Two men were arrested Thursday as protests continued at the Fiddler timber sale in Southern Oregon. Liam O'Reilly of Ashland and Gordon Gilbrook of San Diego were charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with agricultural process, authorities said. They were booked at the Josephine County Jail. Forty-eight arrests have been made at the sale in less than three weeks. O'Reilly has been arrested twice. Rich Parrett was driving a log truck early Thursday when he spotted Gilbrook in the middle of the road. The activist was suspended 20 feet high in a platform below two poles anchored to a Volvo. A banner below the platform read "These forests need fire, not old-growth tree removal.'' By 7 a.m., at least 10 law enforcement officers had arrived, along with more than two dozen activists....
Crocodiles lose endangered tag The American crocodile, once among the most imperiled animals in the United States, has rebounded so robustly that the federal government announced plans Thursday to cease classifying it as endangered. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed upgrading the crocodile's status from endangered to threatened, a change that would recognize the crocodile's improved prospects while leaving its legal protection intact. Once reduced to a last stronghold in northeastern Florida Bay, the crocodile has reclaimed some of its old territory, extending its range up both coasts of Florida. A crocodile recently showed up in a lake at the University of Miami's campus in Coral Gables. Occasional reports of crocodiles come from Fort Lauderdale and the West Lake section of Hollywood. The number of crocodiles in South Florida rose to as many as 1,000 from a low point in the 1970s of fewer than 300....
How to train a bear Male grizzlies and black bears are currently coming out of hibernation in Montana’s bear country, with female grizzlies and cubs likely to follow in April. Bear experts are hoping to help more of them survive the spring. Last year, bear deaths stemming from human/bear interaction rocketed: The grizzly bear mortality in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem hit a new record of 31 fatalities, including the deaths of 18 females essential to the reproduction efforts of a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. One key is reducing spillage from freight trains along railroad tracks in bear habitat. Last year, at least three bears were killed on Montana tracks, possibly searching for food from spills during a particularly poor huckleberry season....
Study finds species introduced to Alaska's Aleutian Islands has adverse effect on both birds and plant life Talk about an extreme makeover. The introduction of arctic foxes to about 100 islands in Alaska's Aleutian archipelago has reduced the seabird population so much that grasslands once nourished by bird droppings have been reduced to tundra, new research suggests. The dramatic domino effect, begun by 18th century trappers seeking a new fur source, suggests that putting predators in places that previously lacked them can decimate not only prey species but also entire plant communities by cutting off their source of nutrients. "One of the things this underlines is how much of an impact introduced species can have on island ecosystems," said Dan Croll, a study co-author and assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz....
Wasting disease plan insufficient, federal official says Tom Roffe, the federal agency's chief of wildlife health, praises the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for acknowledging that the 23 state elk feedgrounds could help spread chronic wasting disease. But he said the proposals would come too little, too late to protect elk. Researchers suspect the disease spreads through animal-to-animal contact. The plan recommends keeping feedgrounds open even after chronic wasting disease is discovered, although feeding areas would be spread out and feeding days cut back to disperse elk. While Roffe praised those goals, he warned that Wyoming should not wait until the disease reaches feedgrounds....
Photographer, bear advocate cited for getting to close to bruins A Bozeman photographer, author and bear advocate has been cited with intentionally approaching within 20 yards of a family of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park. It's illegal to approach within 100 yards of bears in the park. Jim Cole was cited last July in the Gardner Hole area, he confirmed Thursday. A trial was scheduled for Wednesday, but has been rescheduled because an attorney had a conflict. Cole agreed that he had approached the bears, but insisted it happened accidentally....
State sends three bison to slaughter Three of the six bison that were captured outside Yellowstone National Park's western boundary this week tested positive for brucellosis and were sent to slaughter, a Montana Department of Livestock official confirmed Thursday. "Six bison were captured on Monday the 21st and they were tested on Tuesday," Karen Cooper, DOL spokeswoman said. "Three tested negative and they were released back onto Horse Butte, onto public land. Three were sent to slaughter. The meat, heads and hides will go to tribal organizations." All six were held at Duck Creek, a permanent holding area on private land near West Yellowstone. The brucellosis tests were administered by federal veterinarians, Cooper said....
Delicate balance After 12 years of crafting compromises, the federal government on Thursday released the nation's largest habitat conservation plan. The plan carves out land in San Bernardino County's high desert to preserve for wildlife while making it easier to build new homes in Victorville and other fast-growing high cities. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plan, encompassing 9.3 million acres of the western Mojave Desert, seeks to balance an ancient landscape of rugged volcanic mountains, 11,000-year-old creosote bushes and more than 100 species that depend on that habitat with mushrooming suburbs and strip malls....
Environmentalists oppose plan for Imperial Sand Dunes A federal agency says its new plan regulating how land is used in the popular Imperial Sand Dunes area will balance off-road use with the need to protect the wilderness and threatened plant and animal species. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management announced a Recreation Area Management Plan for the 160,000-acre area in Imperial County. The dunes draw more than 1.2 million visitors annually. But environmentalists criticized the plan, calling it "flawed." They predicted it will not withstand legal challenges. A key off-roading group praised the BLM plan in a press release, but said it changes little on the ground for the sport. "This is just one more step in a five-year journey to re-open areas that were unnecessarily closed," Vince Brunasso, founder and legal chairman of the American Sand Association, said in the release....
Judge refuses to close hearing in coal-bed methane case A federal judge has denied a gas production company's request to close a March 29 hearing in a lawsuit challenging federal regulation of coal-bed methane development in Montana. Fidelity Exploration and Production Co. contended that public disclosure of information on its operations could harm the company. However, U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson found that public interest outweighs the company's need to protect financial information. "The Court will not close any part of the proceedings to the public in a case such as this, where the government is a party and where the action is based on a public interest law, the National Environmental Policy Act," Anderson said Monday. Anderson's decision came despite no objections from plaintiffs or the Bureau of Land Management to Fidelity's motion. Anderson, who ruled within two hours of the motion's filing, also pointed to what he called unusual teamwork between Fidelity and government attorneys. "The United States Attorney's apparent cooperation in Fidelity's attempt to clothe at least part of the hearing in secrecy is in this court's experience unprecedented," Anderson wrote....
Commissioners work through ordinance process to protect water countywide The ordinance Otero County commissioners are considering to safeguard water from oil and gas contamination on Otero Mesa — as well as preserve water countywide — is modeled after one in Lovington. On Wednesday, Lovington City Manager Pat Wise told commissioners Lovington’s ordinance was passed because oil drillers were polluting city water sources. “I was ... horrified at what oil companies had done,” Wise said. At first, according to Wise, drillers threatened to sue to stop the ordinance. Wise, though, said the situation was “unacceptable” as well as “atrocious,” and the Lovington commission did not waver. “We were successful after numerous hard-fought months,” he said. Otero Mesa ranchers Bobby Jones and Bebo Lee have asked Otero’s commissioners to pass a similar ordinance. At a March 1 public hearing, Jones and Lee said they only want to keep pristine the water that is life to their cattle. The ordinance defines drilling permits, waste storage and pollution prevention. Currently, the Bureau of Land Management and the Oil Conservation Division of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department inspect drillers under state and federal regulations. While Commission Vice Chair Doug Moore does not expect full petroleum production on Otero Mesa to begin for “many years,” he said the county must position now for “protection of ground water (and) protection of whatever we deem necessary in Otero County.” Commissioners held a second public hearing on Wednesday, and are forming a committee to develop the ordinance....
Column: Removing Lower Snake dams will save the salmon As a rancher and former state senator, I am well acquainted with the various water issues facing the state of Idaho today. As early as 1976, I introduced S.B. 1400, which called for a moratorium on new water diversions along the Lower Snake River. It got 12 votes at a time when few people understood how severe our water management problems would become. Earlier this month, I testified before the House Resources and Conservation Committee in support of bills needed to ratify the Nez Perce-Snake River Basin Adjudication (SRBA) agreement. Since our state was short-sighted years ago, I believe this agreement is the best chance we have now for protecting Idaho's agricultural economy. But at the same time, I urged legislators to begin negotiations to address one of the most critical issues surrounding Idaho's water woes: salmon recovery. Why is Idaho water being used to defend four dams in Washington state?....
Imperiled species plan set A plan to protect endangered species along the lower Colorado River and shield critical water supplies from future lawsuits will be formally signed next month by representatives from Arizona, Nevada and California. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who pushed to complete the $626 million Multi-Species Conservation Plan, is expected to attend the ceremony April 4 at Hoover Dam. Arizona's largest water provider, the Central Arizona Project, formally adopted the plan earlier this month, joining agencies in all three states. The CAP board agreed to spend about $52 million over the plan's 50-year lifespan. Ultimately, most Colorado River water users in Arizona will contribute to the habitat plan in the form of user fees or surcharges. Arizona's share of the program is roughly $78 million. California and Nevada have also pledged money, and the federal government is expected to foot half the bill. The habitat plan was designed to protect 26 species on the lower Colorado, the section of river below Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona....
Cutthroat Country! The Rocky Mountain West holds a treasure chest for outdoorsmen and women. Its riches are many, with copious opportunities to hunt big game and birds and to fish for warm- and coldwater fishes. But it's the region's colorful cutthroat trout that are the shimmering jewels on top of cache. Anglers in the region are blessed with several cutthroat trout subspecies with which to match wits, from Montana to New Mexico. The subspecies are unique, scientists say, because they have been isolated from each other for thousands of years. Essentially, each cutthroat subspecies is in itself an expression of the different environments it inhabits....
PG&E to give up dam to revive fish habitat California's largest utility said Wednesday it will not renew its license to operate a small Shasta County hydroelectric project, dedicating the water instead to threatened salmon and steelhead trout. State and federal wildlife officials and environmental groups praised Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s agreement, which they hope will spur similar decisions by other utilities as several hundred dams come up for re-licensing in the next few years. Removing the dams, powerhouses, aqueducts and forebays would revive about 20 miles of fish habitat by restoring the natural flows currently diverted from South Cow and Old Cow creeks. The creeks flow directly into the Sacramento River, giving the chinook and trout the ocean access they require....
Norton appoints Nomsen to wetlands post Pheasants Forever's (PF) Dave Nomsen, vice president of governmental affairs, has been appointed to the North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Council). Gale Norton, secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, made the three year appointment. Nomsen has served as an alternate member on the Council since 1999. His new appointed term will run from March 1, 2005 through March 1, 2008. The Council was established by the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) to review and recommend project proposals to the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, which has the ultimate authority to approve funding for projects under NAWCA....
Women answer call of wild The women all carried shotguns and they knew how to use them. But the middle-aged guys in ballcaps weren't worried. In fact, the middle-aged guys in ballcaps were from the Golden Triangle Sporting Dog Club and were mentoring the women, who were becoming some of Montana's most passionate upland game bird hunters. In all, 14 women from as far away as De Borgia gathered in Great Falls on March 11-12 for an annual Becoming an Outdoor Woman Upland Game Bird Clinic, sponsored by the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks BOW program. "They all knew how to shoot a gun but some had very little hunting experience," said Liz Lodman, coordinator for BOW in Montana....
Arizona Senate votes to close DEQ After weeks of public disagreements, the Senate on Wednesday voted to kill the state agency in charge of protecting Arizona's water, land and air. Supporters of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality don't expect the vote to stick, saying the agency has been caught up in a game of political football. The vote to discontinue the department came just days after Republican legislative leaders tried to delay funding for DEQ because of a dispute between agency heads and Senate Appropriations Chairman Bob Burns, R-Peoria. The Senate vote, if it stands, would end DEQ as of July 1. But it probably won't stand for too long, according to Gov. Janet Napolitano....
Grand Canyon's Mysteries of Origin Solved For over 135 years, the best scientific minds were baffled by the origin of the Grand Canyon. They recognized that the Colorado River carved this natural masterpiece, but exactly when and how eluded them. Only in the last few years has a consensus begun to emerge and now, for the first time, author James Lawrence Powell reveals how the mystery came to be solved in his new book, "Grand Canyon: Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle." Powell explains how geologists have concluded that the rock forming the Grand Canyon emerged from underground, and the Colorado River cut through it, actually running in the opposite direction. At another time, hundreds of feet of gravel buried an ancestor of today's Colorado River, then erosion removed the gravel and resurrected the river in what James Lawrence Powell has dubbed the "Lazarus Theory." James Lawrence Powell is Executive Director of the National Physical Science Consortium, and a former Director and President of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.Powell's book is published by Pi Press and will be released on April 18, 2005. It is filled with historical photographs of the early research expeditions, is 352 pages, cloth, and will retail for $27.95....
Montana T. Rex Yields Next Big Discovery in Dinosaur Paleontology A Tyrannosaurus rex discovered during a lunch break in eastern Montana -- and the oldest T. rex on record -- has produced the latest major discovery in dinosaur paleontology, said Jack Horner, curator of paleontology at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies. Researchers led by Mary Higby Schweitzer, formerly of MSU, found soft tissues preserved in both hind thigh bones of the dinosaur, according to an article in the March 25 issue of the journal Science. The dinosaur known as B. rex also contained transparent, flexible and hollow blood vessels with round microscopic structures inside. The structures look like cells, leading the scientists to believe that some dinosaur soft tissues may keep a portion of their flexibility, elasticity and resilience even after 68 million years. B. rex, found north of Jordan, Mont. in 2000, is estimated to be about 68 million years old....
Colorado Says Aliens Must Go! Just north of the almost-Ghost Town of Hooper in Colorado's beautiful and weird San Luis Valley, there's a truly oddball roadside attraction known as the UFO Watchtower. Local rancher Judy Messoline opened the elevated viewing platform (and the required gift shop full of Flying Saucer trinkets & gewgaws) to capitalize on the valley's long history of bizarre aerial phenomena and the wave of UFO-conspiracy teevee shows in the 1990s. Visitors know they're getting close when they see the 3-foot tall plywood aliens along the roadside. But the humorless anti-American drones of the Colorado Department of Transportation, otherwise known as CDOT, have decided the colorful little critters must go....
Hispanic cowboy church first of its kind Iglesia Bautista de Los Vaqueros in Waxahachie is the first church of its kind, but it definitely will not be the last, predicted Ron Nolen, Baptist General Convention of Texas consultant on Western heritage churches. “We believe 100 of these (Hispanic cowboy) churches could be started in Texas,” Nolen said. “The potential for the vaquero church is tremendous when you consider that there is a Hispanic population of 6 million (in Texas), and a significant percentage of those are agrarian people. A lot of those are cowboyed up—with their hats and boots.” The vaquero church began when Frank Sanchez, a member of the Cowboy Church of Ellis County, noticed several Hispanic men were coming to the church’s Thursday night buck-outs, where men attempted to ride bulls. Sanchez began talking to them, and several began meeting him for Bible study on Sunday evenings. The group has become a mission church of about 50 people meeting each Sunday evening at the Cowboy Church facilities. Sanchez has turned leadership of the group over to Herman Martinez, who is serving as interim pastor. Martinez also is pastor of Templo Alpha and Omega in Waxahachie, which meets on Sunday mornings. Services at Templo Alpha and Omega are a combination of Spanish and English, but the vaquero church services are all Spanish, including the music, Martinez noted. The music also is Western-style, with accordion, acoustic guitar and bass guitar accompaniment....

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